Looking out and getting about !!!

   I'm entering my "looking out stage". I've done plenty of belly button gazing over the last few months and well, enough is enough. The time has come to look outwards and forwards not inwards. Contemplation and thinking things through has been really useful and I guess it's stage one in returning to a normal life (well what passes for normal for me).
    I went and stayed with a friend who lives on the coast (North Kent) on Sunday. She'd had a couple of black and white pictures, framed. She'd brought them when she came to the Portobello Road Market with me, a couple of weeks ago. My "task of the day" was holding them up in various locations, until she decided where they looked best and should finally hang. A tape measure, spirit level and several whacks with a hammer to fix the nails and my work was done. She's now on the look out for more old photo's to fill the rest of her hall. So I guess I'm going to become fairly good friends with that hammer over the next few months.
   The following day we had a bracing walk along the shoreline, picking up shells as we went. Once I got home and washed the sand away and let them dry. I filled a large glass jar I had. I'm quite pleased with the result. The original owners having move out and now their old homes sit on top of my desk and keep me company. I'm tempted to buy another tall jar and fill that too.

   That wasn't  my only new addition of the week. After finishing work on Friday I passed an Auction House on the way home. As already mentioned in a previous post I love wandering around old furniture and bric-a-brac. There was a ton of stuff I would of happily given living space too but I have to find some cash to spend on the van soon. So I had to ignored all. All except a blue and white ginger jar, which I left a small bid on. I got an email yesterday, saying my bid  had won it.
   Here she is, lot number 2093,12" tall on her stand. I'll have to do a little research and find out more about her but she's around 120 years old. Some clever bugger has drilled a small hole in the bottom, so it's spent some of it's later years as a lamp but they did kept the top (which more often than not gets lost or broken) so they're forgiven. I paid just over £41 for her. Not bad when you consider that she was probably sitting on a shelf somewhere. While Conan Doyle was killing off Sherlock Holmes. Verdi's opera "Falstaff" premiered in Milan and Grover Cleveland becomes the 24th President of the USA. It's also survived two World Wars and the van journey back to my flat wrapped in my jacket.  
   In all a very good weekend and a first post using my own pictures. I guess you'll have to get used to pictures of whatever I pick up off the floor or hopefully the odd Auction bargain.
  Onwards and upwards in the pursuit of fulfillment and happyness :-)))